Give immigrant workers an Alabama ID with restrictions (letter)

No doubt as a result of frustration with the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to secure our borders, the state of Alabama recently passed an immigration law.

Although the motive behind passing the law may be understandable, the law in fact is cruel and unenforceable.

The hungry, desperate people who come here by whatever means do so to fill our dire need for their labor. The work they perform is hard, dirty and backbreaking. It is no wonder that unskilled American workers choose not to perform these dirty jobs, relying instead on government handouts.

These immigrants are harvesting our crops, building our homes and tending our yards, earning not minimum wages as the TV networks would have us believe, but $15 to $20 per hour.

What Alabama should do — thereby really shaming the federal government into properly doing its job on our borders — is to provide these workers with a legitimate Alabama Work Identification Card bearing their photograph, fingerprints and DNA.

Let this card allow them to qualify for a legal driver’s license — but, however, with no other government benefits.

This is the realistic and humane way to treat these hardworking human beings who are simply here to do our dirty work.